Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-10-27

After that slept the sleep OF the just;
| and Il very heavy sleep it must be- AS for
| Good, don't know if he went to sleep OF
| if he continued to pass Sorais' beauties in
| mental review; and, what is more, 1 don't
care.
| CHAPTER XIII.-ABOUT THE ZU-vENDI PEG
PIE
| And now the curtain is down for a few
hours, and the actors in this novel drama
are plunged in dewy sleep. Perhaps we
should except NyIeptha, whom the reader
may, if POLITICALLY inclined, imagine lying
| in her bed of state encompassed by her
maidens, tiring-women, guards, and all
the other people and appurtenances that
| surround a throne, and yet not able to
| slumber for thinking of the strangers who
| had visited country where 40 such strang-
ers had ever come before, and wondering,
as she lay awake, who they were and what
their past had been, and if she was ugly
| compared to the women of their native
| place. L however, not being POLITICALLY in
clined, Will take advantage of the lull be-
fore the awful events Of the morrow, to
| give some account of the people among
whom we found ourselves; compiled, need
/ less to state, from information which we
subsequently collected.
| The name or this country, to begin at the
| beginning, is Zu-vendis, from Zu, yellow
and Vendis, "place or country" Why it
is called the Yellow Country / have never
| been able to ascertain accurately, nor do
| the inhabitants themselves know Three
reasons are, however, given, each Of which
would suffice to account for it, The first
| is that the name owes its origin to the
| great quantity of gold that is found in the
| land. Indeed, in this respect Zu-vendis is
a veritable Eldorado, the precious metal
being extraordinarily plentiful At pres
ent it is collected from purely alluvial dig
| gings, which we subsequently inspected
and which are situated within days jour
| ney from Milosis: being mostly found in
| pockets, and in nuggets weighing from an
| ounce up to six or seven pounds in weight
| But other diggingS of a similar nature ara
| known to exist, and I have besides seen
greet veins of gold-bearing quartz. In Zu-
| vendiS gold is much commoner metal
| than silver, and thus it has curiously
| enough come to pass that silver is the legal
! tender of the country.
| The second reason given is that, at GER
| tain seasons of the year, the native grasses
of the country, which are very sweet and
good, turn Us yellow as ripe corn; and the
third arises from tradition that the peo-
pie were originally yellow-skinned, but
grew white after living for many genera
tions, upon these high lands. Zu-yendis is
q country about the size of France, is,
roughly speaking, oval in shape, and on
every side cut off from the surrounding
territory by illimitable forests of impene-
trable thorn, beyond which are said to be
hundreds of miles Of moraSseS, deserts, and
great mountains.
1t is, in short, a huge, high table-land
rising up in the center of the dark contin-
ent, much as in southern Africa flat-topped
mountains rise from the level of the sur
rounding yeldt. N1ilosis itself lies, accord
ing to my aneroid, at level of about nine
thousand feet above the sea; but most of
the land is even higher, the greatest ele-
walton of the open country being, | believe,
about eleven thousand feet As a conse-
quence, the climate is, comparatively
speaking, a cold one, being very similar to
that of southern England, only brighter
and not SO rainy. The land is, however.
exceedingly fertile, and grows all cereals
and temperate fruits and timber to perfec-
ton; and in the lower-lying parts even
produces hardy variety of sugar-cane.
Coal is found in great abundance, and in
many places crops out from the surface;
| and SO is pure marble, both black and
white. The same may be said of almost
every metal except silver which is scarce,
and only to be obtained from a range of
mountains in the North.
sZu-vendis comprises in her boundaries a
great variety of scenery, including two
ranges of snow-clad mountains, one OF The
western boundary beyond the impenetra
BILE belt of thorn forest, and the Other
piercing the country from north to south,
and passing at a distance of about eighty
miles from Milosis. from which town its
higher peaks are distinctly visible. This
range forms the chief watershed Of the
land. There are also three large lakes
the biggest, that wherein we emerged, and
which is named Milosis after the city, Gov
ering some two hundred square miles Of
country-and numerous small ones, some
of them salt.
The population of this favored land is,
comparatively speaking, dense, numbering
at q rough estimate from twelve to fifteen
millions. 1t is almost purely agricultural
in its habits, and divided into great classes
as in civilized countries There is a terri
torial nobility, and a considerable middle
class, formed principally of merchants,
officers of the army, etc.; but the great bulk
of the people are well-to-do peasants who
live upon the lands of the lords, from whom
they holt. under a species of feudal tenure.
The best bred people in the country are, as
l think / have said, pure whites with
somewhat southern cast of countenance;
but the common herd are much darker,
though they do not show any negro or 9TH
er African characteristics. AS to their de
scent, | can give no certain information.
Their written records, which extend back
for about thousand years, give no hint of
it. One very ancient chronicler does, in
deed, in abiding to some old tradition that
existed in his day, talk of it as having
| probably originally ''come down with the
people from the coast" but that may mean
| little or nothing. In short, The origin
| the Zu-vendi is lost in the mists Of time.
| Whence they came, or of what race they
are, no man knows. Their architecture
| and some of their sculptures suggest an
| Egyptian or possibly an Assyrian origin;
| but it is well known that their present re-
markable style of building has only sprung
| UP within the last eight hundred years,
1 o;,,1x- afoir,